This invention relates to cartons, and more particularly, to a beverage container carton having a carrying handle.
In the marketing of soft drinks, beer and other beverages, it is well known to sell those retail consumer products in containers, such as cans, glass bottles, PET bottles or other containers which are grouped together in packs of four, six, eight, ten, twelve, twenty-four or any number of containers. Particularly in the case of twelve packs, it is common to package the containers in cartons so as to make it easier to handle the product for the wholesaler and the retailer, as well as for the retail consumer.
A wide variety of different types of container cartons are known. One particular type that has found significant commercial success over the years is a so-called wraparound or sleeve-style carton. In a wraparound carton, a number of containers, e.g., twelve, are wrapped in a paperboard box or carton having a top and bottom wall panels, side wall panels, and end flaps on each end. The end flaps at each end of the top, bottom and side panels are sealed one to the other, thereby providing a closed end and sealed package or carton for the containers.
With this and many types of container carton packages, a carrying handle is often provided on the carton so that both the retailer and retail consumer can more easily carry the carton. A number of different carrying handles are known in the wraparound carton art. The overall purpose of such carton handles is to provide an easy to use handle that is structurally sound so the users can pick up and carry the wraparound carton simply through use of the handle structure without concern that the carton or handle will rip or fail.
Wraparound cartons of this type are commonly punched or die-cut from paperboard material. Different paperboard characteristics such as the composition and thickness offer differing amounts of strength, particularly tear strength, to the material and, as such, the resulting carton. Naturally, thicker, denser and stronger paperboard stock is typically more expensive and carton manufacturers who produce great quantities of paperboard cartons are interested in providing the most economical carton without sacrificing functionality, including carton strength. Paperboard stock that is thinner and made from non-virgin pulp is often less expensive than thicker stock made from virgin pulp, but the strength characteristics of such paperboard stock are also often lower. As such, carton designers endeavor to utilize the most economical paperboard stock while providing the requisite functionality and strength to the carton design.
Moreover, the use of different types of paperboard has a significantly different environmental impact. For example, two common types of paperboard utilized in beverage container cartons are coated recycled board (CRB) and coated unbleached kraftboard (CUK). As the name implies, the CRB is made from 100% recycled components, while the CUK is made from only 20% recycled materials. Environmental impact analysis has shown that the use of CRB is drastically more environmentally beneficial than the use of CUK with significant reductions in wood use, net energy consumption, overall energy for production, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide generation (SO2 and NOx), greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous air pollutants (HAP), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), total reduced sulfur (TRS), wastewater generation, biochemical and chemical oxygen demand (BOD and COD), and solid waste.
In some prior art carton designs, the top panel portions of the carton are adhesively bonded together so as to overlap and for closing the wraparound carton and reinforcing a handle area between two handle openings in the top panel portions. One particular design disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,741 includes a separate sheet or insert of material for reinforcement of the inner top panel portions which is bonded to it, presumably to allow for the use of cheaper paperboard stock without sacrificing carton strength in the top panel and handle areas.
In particular, the carton disclosed in the '741 patent includes a first blank forming the various panels, including the handle containing panel, when folded into the wraparound configuration. An added separate sheet of paperboard is an insert that is glued to the interior surface of the top panel to reinforce the top panel handle area. While this arrangement may allow for the use of thinner and/or weaker, less expensive carton materials, it greatly reduces the production and assembly rates and manufacturing efficiency for the carton. The need to produce the insert in a separate manufacturing operation, the need to match, align and join the insert with the primary blank, and the need to acquire, utilize and maintain specialized equipment for the process results in increased cost and increased process complexity. The need to match, align and join the insert with the primary blank requires slower line speeds, results in more quality control problems, greater cost and complexity and greater paperboard consumption.
Taking this into consideration, it is one object of this invention to provide a beverage carton which has the necessary tear strength and rigidity in the area surrounding the handle, but is more cost-effective, utilizing thinner and/or environmentally friendly paperboard and which can be produced at or near top line speeds and production rates.
Accordingly, it has been another objective of this invention to provide a novel carrying handle for a carton and, particularly, for a wraparound type carton, where the handle's structural components are formed directly from the carton blank. And with this type of handle, it is another objective of this invention to provide an improved carrying handle structure which maintains the structural integrity of the wraparound carton through the distribution chain until it is chosen by a retail consumer, which is very easy to render usable, and to use, by the retail consumer once the carton has been so chosen, and which does not adversely impact on the structural integrity of the carton when the handle is punched out of the carton blank.